Journey through the Land of Darkness
by Greed-kun
Summary: Pain defeated Naruto and killed Hinata. Now Naruto must go through the afterlife to reunite with her, fight through Hell, explore Purgatory and search Heaven for her.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or the Divine Comedy. Masashi Kishimoto and Dante Aligheri do. So don't yell at me for using the same characters and settings.**

**Naruto: Journey through the Land of Darkness**

Chapter 1

Death

It was the first time in his life that he had ever heard those words. "I love him." said Hinata, heir to the Hyuuga clan. She loved him, him the jinchuuriki of the Nine Tailed Demon Fox, the village's pariah. And before he knew it, she was dead. Stabbed through her heart; her chakra no longer giving out any signal. And before he knew what happened, he was in the sewer confronting the Fox.

He didn't remember much of the conversation with it, all he knew was that he released the seal and that the remaining members of Akatsuki were dead after the failed attempt to seal the Nine Tails before being the last. He journeyed, for what felt like years, back to the place of Hinata's death. The people never noticed him as he made his way to the image of a glowing white Hyuuga girl. "Hinata?" Naruto asked. "Naruto, you're here. Now we can finally move on and rest forever." She replied. "You mean we're-" "Yes." She interrupted. "We're dead. We need to move on."

Naruto never thought much of his death other then that he never wanted it to happen before he became Hokage. But it seems Kami had other plans in store for him. And he was right as the Reaper Death Seal shinigami appeared before them. He touched Hinata's forehead and he ascended into a bright light. However, when it turned to Naruto he simply pointed behind him. When he turned, he saw them. The Gates of Hell. "What? But why? I've always fought for the village, why am I going to Hell?" The shinigami did not reply, the doors opened and he pushed Naruto in.

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When he awoke all he heard were screams aboard a large boat, a giant skeleton rowing the boat across a swamp-like river. "Where am I?" Naruto asked a shadowy figure next to him. "From what the ferryman said, this is the river Acheron. He's taking us to someone who's going to judge what we did in life." "That's a relief. I thought I was going to be stuck here." Naruto replied. **"Wrong." **Said the ferryman. **"Through me is the way to the city of woe. Through me is the way to everlasting torment. Abandon all hope, ye who enter here." **"What do you mean?" Naruto shouted to the rowing skeleton. **"Those who enter the inferno do no escape. You entered because you must pay for the wrongs in your life that you attempted to justify. Minos will judge your punishment for your crimes."**

No sooner did the ferryman finish speaking did they come across a peer. The shades shuffled their way off the boat and towards a large tower. Naruto however, escaped from them to a collection of shades in front of a large door. He looked around and saw someone familiar. Blue hair, grey eyes and a blue paper flower in her hair. Now he remembered, she was that Akatsuki member that invaded with Pain. "You! What are you doing here?" he asked her. "I'm stuck here in this circle of Hell." She said to him, remorse dripping from every word. Naruto stared at her, confused.

"Allow me to explain, Naruto." Said a sad voice. Naruto turned to see a replica of an older self. "Ah, I remember you!" Naruto said to him. "Dad, I remember meeting you in the seal!" "I see it did no good." He said somberly, broken hearted to see his son not only dead but in Hell as well. "I'm sorry, Naruto." He said as he began to cry. "I couldn't help you when you needed me most!" He hugged his son closely, trying to repent for the years of suffering he unintentionally put his son through. "It's ok, dad." Naruto said, uncomfortable seeing his father like this. "No, it isn't!" he yelled "It's my fault this happened…" "You were protecting the village! You saved countless people! You did more for me then anyone else ever did."

Minato looked up to his son, tears of pride in his eyes. Proud of the son that he sacrificed his life for. "Anyway, where are we now?" Naruto asked his father. "We're in the first circle of Hell." He began. "What do you mean 'first'?" Naruto asked. "Hell is split up into nine circles, each with different sinners, with different punishments. We are in the first circle, Limbo. Here are the people who weren't bad but they weren't good people either. They aren't punished but they are denied going to heaven, like Hinata did." He explained. "Hey, dad, about Hinata… is there anyway I can see her again?" Naruto asked.

Minato smiled at his son. "My boy, that's why I'm here. She came to me and told me that you where going to be here, she told me the way for you to go see her. And I can lead you there." Naruto's eyes suddenly got bright and hopeful. "There's a way out? But the skeleton guy said-" "I know what he said, he said the same thing to me. But he's not the boss down here. I know a loop-hole to get out." Minato said. "But, we need to make our way to the ninth circle, to the absolute bottom. "Deal! Together, we'll be unstoppable!" Naruto said.

"There's a catch, Naruto. I can only be your guide, I can't help you fight. If I do, they'll take me away." Minato said to Naruto. "Fine, I'm the son of the greatest Hokage the Leaf Village has ever seen! I'll make it no problem, believe it!" Naruto boasted. Minato couldn't help but laugh at his son's familiar personality. "Alright then let's get going!" Minato said. "Wait, there's still one thing I want to know." Naruto said as he turned back to Konan. "What is it?" she asked. "Why did you and Pain form Akatsuki in the first place?" he asked.

Naruto sat and listened to Konan's story of their meeting with Jiraiya, their training, Yahiko's determination and untimely death, Nagato's rage and Madara's leadership. "I can't believe it…" Naruto said in sadness. "We were exactly the same, and yet we drove off in different paths… I only wish we had met sooner. Maybe then we could have changed the world together, for the better." "I know. I am bonded to this circle because I wanted to change the world, but I couldn't do anything but stand by Nagato's side. I know that Yahiko is in a better place then this, but I'm afraid that Nagato's somewhere down below."

"Come with us!" Naruto said. "What? After everything we did to you? Your going to help us escape from here?" she said a mix of remorse and hope in her voice. "Your damn right I am! You guys deserve a better afterlife after what you guys already suffered through!" Konan fell to her knees and began to cry. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry for not stopping Nagato from killing you…" "It's alright, I've already come to terms with the fact that I'm dead. If I can get to see Hinata again, then I'm going to fight my way through Hell and do one last good deed to redeem myself from punishment here. Let's go to Hell, Konan!" Konan stood up and wiped away her tears and they entered the large side doors to the tower following Minato to their redemption…

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**AN: What can I say other then I have Dante's Inferno plot bunnies in my head. I'm going to continue Night of the Scarecrow but I need to fix some plot holes first. As always, don't expect me to write new chapters quickly. I have a social life you know.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or the Divine Comedy. Masashi Kishimoto and Dante Aligheri do. So don't yell at me for using the same characters and settings.**

**Naruto: Journey through the Land of Darkness**

Chapter 2

Judgment

It was probably only ten minutes, but climbing up all the stairs in the tower felt like hours. Minato explained to them that they needed to get passed King Minos, Judge of the Damned, before they could go lower into Hell. The three escapees found themselves in room full of shadowy figures. The room was bright, eloquent looking, and the sounds of screaming did not reach here.

"Dad, where are we?" Naruto asked. "This is the room of the 'Virtuous Pagans'. These people weren't evil, but they contemplated Kami's existence and properties too much. Like everyone else here in Limbo, their only punishment is being denied going to heaven." Konan stood stoically listening to the information.

"But that's not right! We have to help them too!" Naruto yelled. Some of the shades looked up to him, others did not. Maybe they couldn't even see them? "No, Naruto. We can't help them because their chakra has completely disappeared. Once in Hell, your chakra is slowly taken away. And without it they can't escape. Besides, these people don't have such a harsh punishment." Minato explained. "Then we can assume that the others below suffer worse and worse as the circles get lower?" Konan asked, finally speaking. "Much worse." Minato said cryptically.

They left the room and reached the top of the tower where across the gap, they saw a giant old man. A bald head, with scars from battle, and a long white beard held together with a ribbon. "Is that Minos?" Konan asked. "We need to cross this gap and then get passed him to move on…" Minato said eyeing the doors behind Minos. "How do we do that?" Naruto asked. "Follow me." They followed Minato into a room just below the roof with an extendable bridge and walls filled with the corpses of infants. "Dad, what the hell is this place?" Naruto said upon seeing the babies.

"This is the room of the children who died early in life, who didn't get the chance to learn right from wrong." Minato explained. "That's horrible! How could Kami allow this?" Naruto yelled, disgusted that any god would allow this. "I don't know, but we should get out before they wake up, the babies here are scared and alone. If they wake up, they'll attack us." Minato said pushing the bridge out to close that gap.

Naruto and Konan soon began helping Minato, but the bridge made terribly loud noise while moving against the cement floor. "Hurry before they-" one by one the babied began screaming and crying out. "They've woken up! Hurry!" They increased the pace at which they moved the bridge out. The babies dropped down off the wall and slowly made their way over to the three hell mates. One of them suddenly lunged out for an attack, and Konan immediately sliced it in half. "You two push, I'll keep them busy!" Konan yelled as she exploded into thousands of pieces of paper. A protective wall surrounded Naruto and Minato, while Konan reformed herself with two paper katanas.

The infants begin lunging at Konan. Being that they no longer see Naruto or Minato, they ignore the wall. Konan swiftly begins dodging the infants and slicing the ones who get close enough to attack, showing the full power of the Akatsuki member she once was.

Konan easily fended off the infants, long enough for Minato and Naruto to get across. When they reaches passed the door, Konan swiftly used her paper abilities to slip through the closed door behind them and joined them as they reached King Minos' court room.

It was massive, the room was open, facing the tower of Virtuous Pagans. Naruto looked out and saw nothing behind the tower, only the river Acheron and the Tower. Nothing but darkness after that. Naruto turned around and looked at this court room, above rows of shadowy people, being grabbed by Minos, judged and thrown down into the lower rings of Hell. He suddenly looks down, finally noticing the 3 escapees. "You! What are you doing here, Minato? I already sentenced you to one of the lower circles!" Minos yelled at the defiant Minato. 'Lower circles? Why?' Konan thought to herself. "I escaped because Kami has plans for my son!" Minato yelled back at the giant man. "Such insolence! You will have to be punished by me instead of those worthless circle guards!"

Minos stood up from his judges throne and took a giant flaming sword to our heroes. "Suffer insolent pests!" Minos yelled out as he swiped down over the ground, burning the bricks. Our three heroes, managed to dodge the attack in time for Naruto and Konan to land 2 well placed attacks. An Odama Rasengan and Paper Lance of Longinus, respectively, into each side of Minos's chest. Minos took a step back to avoid falling down. He grabbed Naruto in his giant hand and began to squeeze when Konan used paper darts to stab into Minos's hand, forcing him to release Naruto.

Minos lifts his arm and spreads fire everywhere to destroy Konan but her millions of tiny paper butterflies dodge easily. Naruto used this distraction to activate Sage mode and landed the hardest punch someone his size could land on Minos. Then just as the bloodied Minos grabbed Naruto, he disappeared. Minos looked around searching for Naruto as two clones ran up behind Minos's feet and kicked them as hard as they could. Each shouting "Na-","Ru-". Then as Minos was falling back, the both jumped up and kicked Minos's back sending him into the air. "To!" The both yelled while doing this. Then the real Naruto jumped down from the ceiling "Uzumaki Barrage!" He yelled and punched Minos as hard as he could in the face sending him head straight into the ground with a massive quake. Konan wasted no time, summoning four pillars of paper to impale Minos's wrists and ankles, then spreading them to the floor, holding him down, sure that he will not get up when his consciousness returns.

Minato reappears before the two, and is greeted by Naruto's non-sage punch. "What did he mean?" Naruto asked furiously. "What did he mean when he said that you were in one of the lower circles? And what do you mean that Kami has something planned for me? I thought Hinata asked you to do this! What's going on?"

"I have to break here and ask just what is your planning as well, Fourth Hokage." Konan said to Minato.

"I know, I have more explaining to do… About my punishment in the lower Hell, I'll explain when we get to that circle." He said "As for Hinata, she DID ask me to help you, but this was a request from Kami himself too. I don't know for what though…"

"If Kami wants me then why am I in Hell?" Naruto yelled, his frustration growing.

"I don't know, maybe it's a test? Maybe you were destined for one of the circles? The only thing that matters is that I WILL lead you out of here and you WILL see Hinata again." Minato said, trying his hardest t comfort the boy.

Before Naruto could speak again Konan opened the doors behind the judge's throne and they felt a powerful wind blow forth.

"What was that?" Naruto asked his dad.

"The second circle…"


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or the Divine Comedy. Masashi Kishimoto and Dante Aligheri do. So don't yell at me for using the same characters and settings.**

**Naruto: Journey through the Land of Darkness**

Chapter 3

The Second Circle

The three escapees traveled down the long staircase coming out of the wall. The further they went the stronger the wind became until they reached the bottom. While they stayed in the tiny cave to avoid the stronger then hurricane winds, they knew they were losing time. Time that drained their chakra slowly. Konan sat down and prepared a paper dome strong enough to stand up to the winds.

"So dad, who are the sinners punished here?" asked Naruto. "Here in the second circle are the people who were overcome with their own lust and desires. One famous person you might remember form the academy is here actually." Minato answered. "Who would that be?" "Mizuki." Naruto burst into laughter at this news. "Really? I thought he'd be somewhere else here in hell!" "Apparently, he was a pervert." Naruto stopped the moment the thought dawned on him.

"Dad… does that mean the Pervy Sage is…" Naruto dared not continue. "You mean Jiraiya? I don't know, to be perfectly honest. I didn't see him on my way up. So he could be in Purgatory…" Naruto felt relief at this. "It's ready." Konan said as they were surrounded in a see through paper dome. They quickly, but carefully made their way across the lone bridge to the other side of the circle, above the storm ravaged sea below.

Suddenly a giant phallic shaped tower came out of the sea and broke the bridge. Startled by this they began to run faster. Soon they realized the bridge was collapsing. They picked up the pace and jumped over the gap form the bridge, jumping over falling debris to get to the tower. Once inside the tower Konan let go of the paper dome. And they had a better view of the place. See through or not, it was still hard to see with the gale force winds.

Naruto looked around and typical to his nature was disgusted by what he saw. Images of perversion and lust everywhere; paintings, statues, furniture even the door frames and the doors themselves. "I don't get why some people find this stuff appealing to watch!" Naruto shouted. Minato stared at him with an odd look. "Naruto, how old are you?" Konan asked. "Sixteen…" "Your too old to find this stuff unappealing. Heck, I thought you'd have more of a nose bleed then your dad over there." Naruto looked at his dad whipping blood off his nose. "Honestly Naruto, I thought you'd actually like this circle…" Minato said.

"Are you two serious? Whatever let's get out of here, so we can move on!" Naruto yelled running through the door and up the stairs behind them.

They followed the sexually repressed shinobi, into a room full of naked women. Women everywhere, pleasuring themselves and each other. Minato nearly died from the blood he lost upon entering the room. Naruto, red-faced, turned and ran out the room, only to realize the only exit is on the other side of the room of women. He begrudgingly reentered and began walking through. "Dad, I thought hell was full of punishment." Naruto said walking around with his eyes covered. Minato on the other hand enjoyed the sight and answered. "The wind is the punishment. They're supposed to be flying around in the wind, and I doubt this tower is supposed to exist. I think there might be someone pulling the strings in this circle and created this tower."

Konan unlike the other two, found herself oddly compelled by the women in the room. She removed her cloak and shirt and kneeled down to join the women. "Konan! What are you doing?" Naruto yelled when he saw what she was doing. "I… don't know, don't care… I want… them." She replied heavy breathed, as the other women began sucking on her pierced nipples. Minato quickly grabbed her clothes and picked her up. "Naruto, something's wrong here. She doesn't seem like herself."

The women began grabbing onto Minato's legs demanding all at once they return Konan to them. Quickly they became violent; Minato threw Konan at Naruto and disappeared. "I hate that you can't help me!" Naruto yelled as he threw Konan through the door and shut it, pulling out a kunai to stop them from continuing.

Suddenly almost all at once, they threw themselves at Naruto, who quickly dodged and ducked while attacking with his kunai. He pulled out another kunai when he realized one wasn't enough. Two women grabbed his legs and he stabbed them in the heads, they fell over dead. Three in front jumped at him and he quickly reacted. Gutting the ones on the sides and breaking the neck of the one in front with his feet. Another two grabbed his wrists and legs, as a three more attempted to unzip his pants. He moved the kunai into the proper position and stabbed the ones holding his wrists in their wrists, releasing his arms. He went low and sliced off the hands of the ones holding his legs and kicked the other three away.

He ran up to the ones without hands and threw them out the only window in the room, breaking the glass and letting in a powerful wind, blowing the rest of the women out of the room. Naruto dug the kunai into a nearby statue to keep himself from being blown out. He opened the doors to the next room when the room readjusted to the pressure.

There he found Konan naked on the ground, pleasuring herself. Her right hand on her breast, the other on her womanhood. "Dad? How do we snap her out of it?" Naruto yelled to the air, asking his father to reappear, which he did. "Do we want to?" Minato asked back.

"Jeez, you really_ were_ taught by the Pervy Sage weren't you?" Naruto asked.

"So where you, I'm surprised you didn't turn into even a little bit of a pervert. I remember this one jutsu I invented, it's little more than a transformation, but it's into a naked blonde girl! Haha, Master Jiraiya loved that one." Minato said.

Naruto was in shock, he really was his father's son… "Can we fix her and be on our way?" he asked pleadingly.

"We just have to wait for her to orgasm. Shouldn't be too long." Minato said to Naruto as Konan began having convulsions on the surprisingly warm floor.

Naruto and Minato sat and waited for Konan to finish herself off.

**6 Hours Later…**

Konan finally finished putting her clothes back on looking redder than someone who hardly saw the sun could possibly look. "Can we just continue, please?" Konan asked sheepishly.

"I've never seen anyone go for that long before! Even Naruto's mom could barely go 3 times in a row, let alone 10 times!" Minato said alienating both Konan and his son.

"I've never seen anyone bend like that before. Heck, I didn't even know a human spine could bend that far." Naruto said red as well.

"Ok, we can go if we're finished here." Minato said with his infamous grin, as he headed up the stairs quickly. Naruto and Konan followed almost as quickly unable to look each other in the eye.

Eventually our heroes find themselves on the roof of the large tower they entered to find it above the storm cloud of the second circle. "How are we supposed to get down from here and into the next circle?" asked Naruto looking over the edge, only able to see clouds. "Konan, can you make a paper airplane to glide us into the next circle?" asked Minato to Konan.

"Leaving already? I thought you boys learned more than just ninjutsu from me!" a sudden horrifically familiar voice shouted out. In response to who was in here with them, everyone's eyes watered up. "No…" they whispered in unison. The boys looked up to see a figure drop onto the roof with them. Yes, it truly was him, Jiraiya the Gallant; condemned to the second circle of the inferno for his unstoppable lust.

"Sensei, why?" "Pervy Sage, no…" When they turned to see him, he was no longer the man who taught them everything they knew, but a twisted demon controlled by lust. His skin a reflective black color, his eyes in sage mode and glowing red, his white hair now grey and red on the points, his clothing gone, fingers pointed into blades, and four bat-like wings sprouting from his back, cracked open and what looked like magma flowing from the holes.

"Naruto, you know what you have to do, right?" Minato asked Naruto, knowing there was no way around this situation. Naruto began to hyperventilate, unable to comprehend what was going on. "No, I can't do it! I can't!" Naruto shouted out, now having a panic attack. Minato held him up while Konan got out in front defending them. "Konan, you're such a sexy bitch! I saw that 6 hour round you had with yourself! I'm going to take my time raping you in all your holes!" the twisted form of what was once Jiraiya, said with glee, laughing to himself. "You're no long the sensei we once knew… I will do what Minato and Naruto cannot."

Konan activated her paper jutsu when Naruto suddenly rushed out past her with incredible speed and tackled Jiraiya down to the floor. "You're not the Pervy Sage!" Naruto yelled punching him in the face, but with no effect. "And you're too weak to be Naruto." Jiraiya said picking him up by his neck. He stood there and held Naruto from the neck choking him. "You can't touch me! I have the inferno's natural energy fueling my demonic sage mode!" Suddenly, Naruto got an idea. Naruto kicked Jiraiya's arm in the right spot to dislocate the elbow and escaped the hold. "I knew it! You're not the Pervy Sage; I bet you can't even use a Rasengan!" Naruto taunted. Jiraiya poped his arm back in place and made two of the biggest Rasengan that Naruto's ever seen, with a heavy red demonic aura to them. "Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Naruto yelled and created hundreds of clones to throw at Jiraiya. They all charged and the Pervy Sage began decimating them all with the two Rasengan.

Naruto immediately begin running around Jiraiya to throw off where the new clones where coming from. Soon enough Jiraiya could no longer see because of all the clone's smoke in the area and he released his Rasengan. Naruto came up from behind Jiraiya and landed his "Wind Style: Rasenshuriken!" Jiraiya turned around and pulled out another "Giant Demon Rasengan!" The clash of these two Rasengan was powerful enough to cause the smoke to swirl into a vortex, pushing back both away from each other. More and more the two gutsy ninjas pushed harder. Suddenly, Jiraiya's Giant Demon Rasengan gave up and the Rasengan's true form prevailed. Jiraiya was sent flying off the tower and exploded into the swirling mass of microscopic damage. However, he still wasn't dead. One massive swing from his wings was enough to push Jiraiya back onto the tower.

Jiraiya and Minato were stunned having now seen the true form of the Rasengan. Naruto finished what Jiraiya and Minato could not. Truly he had surpassed them both in skill for learning jutsu. Although he wasn't dead, Jiraiya's body was severely damaged. "You really did learn what I taught you." Jiraiya said pleased. His demonic sage mode disappearing and returning him to the body they all knew. Jiraiya began screaming in the worst agony he'd ever felt since his death by Pain. Naruto, Minato and Konan all ran up to him to help however they could, but knew it was useless.

"Naruto, thanks. The demonic aura in the air changed me when I entered Sage Mode." He explained to them. "I knew it; I knew you couldn't have changed like that!" Naruto cried onto his shoulder. "Sensei, what happened to you when you entered Sage mode?"asked Konan. "I knew all the storied of ninjas who returned from the inferno. Even a life transference jutsu won't work if your chakra is completely drained from your body. I was just looking for a way out of the circle. I almost lost all my chakra when I was desperate, so I tried using Sage Mode. The demonic aura of the inferno is too powerful and it turned me into that monster. Naruto, Konan, you guys still have some chakra, you can escape-" Jiraiya's body suddenly turned into a shadowy figure. "-unfortunately, it's too late for me and Minato."

"No it isn't! C'mon, we can all still get out! You, me, Naruto, Minato and Nagato!" Konan shouted in tears. "No, there is a seal that only reacts to people with chakra. Without chakra, you can't pass it. I tried with the demon sage, but it only reacts to real life-force chakra." Jiraiya said standing up from the floor. "Look the best I can do for you, is to make the tower get to the other end of the circle for you." The tower then began to move and reached past the storm cloud to the door to the next circle. Naruto, Konan and Minato turned and hugged Jiraiya goodbye.

"I'll never forget you Pervy Sage, or everything you taught me." Naruto cried. "I always missed your guidance, sensei. The rain was never the same after you left." Konan whispered into his ear. "It was an honor being your student, sensei. You were like a father to me." said Minato.

The door opened behind them all and released an incredibly foul odor; the worst any of them ever smelled. "What's that horrible smell?" Naruto asked his father. "The Third Circle…"

**Finally finished, I hope I did everyone's reunion with Jiraiya well. I'm still knew to writing stories so I hope you can forgive me if I didn't do it very well.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or the Divine Comedy. Masashi Kishimoto and Dante Alighieri do. So don't yell at me for using the same characters and settings.**

**Naruto: Journey through the Land of Darkness**

Chapter 3:

The Third Circle

They finally reached the bottom of the steps leading to the third circle. And when they reached Naruto couldn't help but throw up at the mere sight and smell of these unholy plains. Reaching as far as they could see was a wasteland unlike anything else, filled with blood, gore, vomit, excrement and things you couldn't describe in words, with smells so retched a senseless man would rather not enter.

"What the hell is this?" Konan exclaimed hardly keeping himself together.

"My personal least favorite. This is the third circle where people who were nothing less than gluttonous are punished. It might be hard to believe, but this isn't even the worst." Minato said disgusted by this circle.

Konan activated her paper jutsu and created an archway across the lands. "There is no way in hell I'm stepping foot down there." She said, trying to hold her stomach down. "Thank god…" Naruto said relieved. They began their trek across the paper bridge, trying to escape quickly.

"Alright but everyone be on the lookout for Cerberus!" Minato warned.

"Who's that?" Naruto asked.

"Cerberus is the guardian of this circle, he eats the souls here and then either throws it up or… well I'd rather not say."

With that Naruto and Konan picked up the pace, immediately, but it was for nothing, rising up out of the bile came a monstrous dog with three heads, each with vile eyes and fangs. Being the guardian of the gluttons Cerberus was not about to let anyone leave this easily. His fangs crushed the bridge Naruto and Konan were beginning to crossing and they fell on to a giant's corpse. Cerberus swung his giant claws at them but they dodged. Naruto ran up the dog's leg and landed a solid punch into the left head's eye. The dog jolted backwards and swatted Naruto off. Konan created a torrent of paper blades and began cutting the dog from all directions. Cerberus not being merely a stupid animal ran out of the blades and the middle head came down and tried to eat Konan, Naruto however swiftly came in and saved her. "Alright! Let's see you try this on for size!" Naruto exclaimed when he bit down on his finger, drawing blood. "Summoning Jutsu!" Naruto yelled and in a puff of smoke… nothing happened.

Cerberus slammed his paw on to Naruto while Konan began attacking again, gaining the beast's attention. She drew him away from Naruto for Minato to reappear to him. "DAD! Why can't I summon anything?" Naruto asked desperate for assistance from something equally big as the dog. "Unless your summon is already dead you can't force it here. I tried to summon Gamabunta, but I got nothing as well. If I'd been able to do it, I would have escaped long ago." Minato said sadly. "'Something already dead', huh? Ok then, let's try that!" Naruto said, going for one of his infamous unpredictable knucklehead moves.

Naruto summoned up more Chakra and tried the Summoning Jutsu again, this time instead of a puff of nothing; he got the skeleton of a giant toad. "Alright, it worked!" Naruto cheered "Skeleton Toad, attack that monster dog!"

Without any hesitation the skeleton leaped and rammed into the dog, sending it flying to the other side of the circle. The skeleton jumped after him and they both got caught up fighting each other. Bone slamming, biting, clawing, ramming and more.

"Naruto, we should go before they come back." Konan suggested heading quickly towards the edge of the ring. Naruto didn't object, also wanting to escape this disgusting land.

They came across a portal and without considering where it could lead Naruto rushed head first into it. Konan followed, unsure if this was a good idea; it wasn't. They landed in a pit with 7 doors on all sides.

"Damn it!" Naruto exclaimed. "I'm willing to bet one of these doors will lead us out, the others will probably only lead us to a punishment in this circle…" Konan said, analyzing the situation. "Well we won't get anything done by just sitting around!" Naruto said opening the first door, behind it only walls made of teeth, chewed up food everywhere and saliva coating everything. Naruto closed it quickly, before stopping to vomit. "Did I mention I hate this circle?" Naruto asked no one in particular.

He and Konan looked to each other and nodded in agreement, they quickly began opening and closing the doors on after the other, not wanting to get more of a look then they needed. Other horrors lay beyond the other doors; monsters made of mouths, constant excretion, eternal vomiting, burning in stomach acids and a room filled with mirrors. "Naruto, I found it!" Konan called, entering the room.

Upon closer inspection the mirrors were actually portals, Naruto entered one that looked like the edge of the circle, only to reappear from another mirror. "Wait, what just happened?" Naruto asked, confused. "It's only natural, did you think escaping would be that easy, Naruto?" Minato said finally reappearing. "There you are! How do we get out of here?" Naruto asked, half sticking from another portal and one in the ceiling. "If I remember correctly, there are twelve portals and twelve places on the walls where you place the portals. Place them in the right order and they will allow you to enter them." With that Konan began to examine the frames and the backs of the portals.

On the back of one she found the kanji for "Boar", Naruto found the kanji for "Ox" on another. "Naruto, what did you find? I found the kanji for 'boar'." Konan said. "I found 'ox' on one and 'dog' on another one." Naruto replied. Konan then went to the wall and checked, finding an indentation for the kanji of "Rooster". "Naruto, I got it. We find the kanji on the back of the portal frames and place them on the wall with the same kanji. I think the order is the jutsu hand seals." Konan explained. "Right, I'm on it!"

Together they were able to place all the portals in place except for the last one. Before they could get it in place, a large quake that shook the room, maybe even the all the other rooms as well, took place, and from the entrance busted in the orange haired, giant Jirobo of the former group known as the Sound Four. "Naruto Uzumaki! I heard that you where down here! Looks like I can take out my aggression, for that fat kid you left me with, on you!" He immediately charged, grabbed Naruto by the neck and threw him into a portal, turned around and punched him down as he flew out the other portal. Something was off about this; he was definitely bigger and stronger then when they first met.

Konan came in and sliced his head off with her paper sword. His head fell and revealed a white inside. "I knew it! What are you doing here Zetsu?" Konan asked. Damn, she figured it out so quick…" a voice from the walls said. "Let us go!" Konan demanded of her former teammate. "**NEVER!**" came a loud raspy voice from the walls. "We're too hungry! We haven't eaten since we got here!" came another smoother voice. Naruto got up and quickly to push the last portal in place, but was knocked down when Zetsu came out of the wall and pushed the portal down sending Naruto flying through portals again.

"Zetsu, why don't you try to eat any of the others? Why us?" yelled Konan, losing her temper at having to fight one of her former friends.

"**You're still fresh! The others…"** "The others aren't fresh like you are!" the voices said in tandem. **"We tried to eat them…" **"But they are trash, tasteless, disgusting." **"You do not belong to this circle!" **"You will be fresh food for us!" **"YOU WILL BE-"**"-DELICIOUS!"

Vines of Zetsu's white innards came from all directions, tying up our heroes. Smaller versions of Zetsu began forming on the vines and began biting down on Naruto. "I knew it!" Said Zetsu. **"They're fresh, they are-"**"-delicious!"

Konan activated her Paper Jutsu and impaled the Zetsu mouths on her and struck down the mouths on Naruto. "Konan, does he have any weaknesses?" asked Naruto. "Yes, fire, his body is more the just a little plant-like. We set him on fire and we can escape from him." She replied. The Black Zetsu jumped out and attacked Naruto, but he swiftly kicked him into the wall, but he just remerged into it. Naruto quickly ran over to the Portal and set it in place before Zetsu could come back again and quickly entered, Konan followed suit.

The duo now found themselves at another portal room. "Damn it!" yelled Naruto. But they now realized there was only one portal they could enter, because the room was a gravitational labyrinth. The whole Zetsu followed through the portal, his form hideous, truly more plant then human. The white side lifted his arm and shot out more innards vines, Naruto and Konan dodged and dived into the portal, reappearing in another, in the same room, this time somewhere on the ceiling. They quickly began running through portal, after portal dodging Zetsu's attacks, until they arrived in a new room.

This room was the Hall of Gluttons. The monsters with mouths on their hands and ears from before were here, sitting in piles of filth eating, puking and shitting everywhere. Naruto couldn't wait to get out of there. Their presence caught the attention of the Gluttons and then got up and began running towards the duo. Konan turned into a barrage of paper blades and pierced one to pieces, the glutton next to that one stopping to eat the remains.

The fastest glutton grabbed onto Naruto and tried to shove him into its mouth, Naruto hung on to the edged of its mouth with this feet and managed to kick it down and free himself from its grip. Naruto's arms were bleeding from the bite just now on them. Naruto pulled out a five kunai and began using them as skillfully as Kakashi used multiple kunai, even without the aid of a Sharingan. Using that skill, he took down two other gluttons and the one who bit down on his arms.

However, Zetsu now caught up with Naruto and Konan. Zetsu caught the distracted Naruto, but Konan immediately cut him free. Seeing a torch on the wall Konan ran for it, trying to gain the advantage, but just as she was about to get it, the Black Zetsu came out of the wall and knocked it away. The torch fell into a pile of I-don't-even-want-to-know and was put out by the liquid mess. The White Zetsu caught Konan and began biting down onto her with sharp, jagged teeth; then the Black Zetsu reformed into the other half. But just before they would truly begin eating Konan, Naruto came to the rescue again, getting the Zetsus on fire with another torch they failed to put out.

Zetsu flailed around running into the Gluttons setting them ablaze as well. Zetsu dived into the floor and escaped. The flaming gluttons that remained were too preoccupied with their well being to be concerned with Naruto and Konan. They ran for the door at the other end of the hall and remerged close to the end of the circle. In the distance they saw the door to the next circle.

The duo made a break for the door at full speed. However before they could reach it, Cerberus and Zetsu returned, the Skeleton of the toad falling before them, broken and beaten.

"**Now then, you can't beat us now!"** "Not since we've gained control of this circle's guardian!" Zetsu said. They saw Zetsu half sticking out of the dog's forehead, vines and leaves now sticking out of the dog.

"THAT'S IT ZETSU!" Konan yelled, she'd had enough. "I'm going to show you the reason I stayed by Pain's side the entire time, and why you were never selected to fight on the front lines!"

Konan summoned two giant paper airplanes and used them to impale the dog as it attacked in mid-air. Konan used a large amount of paper to summon a gigantic paper drill and started spinning.

"Gigantic Paper Drill Jutsu!" she shouted as she flew at incredible speeds towards the combined abomination, easily tearing through the beast and shredding it to pieces.

Naruto looked up in awe, seeing the notable hint that Jiraiya tried to teach Konan and her friends the Rasengan when they trained under him. No one else but Minato has ever created a jutsu that took the power gained from spinning at that speed, at least nothing that ever challenged the Rasengan.

"That was amazing!" Naruto said to Konan after she returned. "Did you make that after learning Rasengan?" he asked. Konan simply shook her head. "I was never able to master it. Nagato was the only one of us that was able to master it, instead I used my paper jutsu to create the closed thing I could. But no matter what, the Rasengan was still more powerful."

They continued onward and finally reached the door to the fourth circle, Konan took a moment to rest next to the door. "The Gigantic Paper Drill Jutsu takes up a large amount of chakra, just like Rasengan, let me rest for a moment." Konan asked of Naruto, he sat down next to her. "I'm just as tired."

After a few moments they got up again and opened the door to the next circle. The sound of screams, the smell of sulfur and a yellow glow emanated from the next circle. "Dad?" Naruto asked. Minato reappeared and introduced the next circle. "Next is the circle of Greed."

**I had fun running them through my least favorite circle. No spoilers but the reason Naruto is in hell will be revealed sometime in the next few of chapters. So look forward to that.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or the Divine Comedy. Masashi Kishimoto and Dante Alighieri do. So don't yell at me for using the same characters and settings.**

**Naruto: Journey through the Land of Darkness**

Chapter 5:

The Fourth Circle

Upon entering the fourth circle of the Inferno, Naruto knew instantly this would not be easy. He gazed upon what looked like a factory made for torture. People boiling in gold, being crushed by giant bags of money and fighting to keep whatever they could get for themselves. Naruto looked up and saw gargoyles looking down and keeping watch on the inmates. Minato began explaining how this worked. "This is the circle of Greed. People who squandered too much money on material goods or kept more money than they needed simply because they could are punished here. As well as people who placed more value in money than they did on personal relationships. Everyone is tried, in the courthouse over there, to sell themselves to a number of tortures the wheel randomly selects." Minato points to a decayed courthouse not too far from the entrance across a bridge from where they stood.

"It seems the only option for us is too pass through there in order to continue." Konan said gazing down upon the deeper parts of the factory.

"Then we better hurry up!" Naruto said dashing for the court. So far no interruptions and they quickly entered. The inside of the courthouse was in ruin, as if it had not seen any human care or repair in over 100 years. In the back, a large roulette wheel with various torture devices displayed on its sections. Just underneath sat the 3rd Kazekage, he looked up seeing that these people clearly did not belong to this circle. "Come forth, you who does not belong." He said to them. Minato and the rest came up close to him. Naruto instantly saw a large hole in his chest where his heart would go. The Kazekage noticed and explained, "Sasori of the Red Sand did this to me. I gleefully saw him fall to a lower circle, as I was placed here as a secondary judge of the greedy."

"Lord Kazekage, tell me your story. Why have you been brought to the circle of Greed?" Minato asked. "From what I heard you were the strongest Kazekage and one of the kindest."

"My reputation precedes me, I see. It is true I was kind and powerful. Powerful enough to create an improved version of a Jinchuriki power, but I was selling my seat as Kazekage to the next generation. The next Jinchuriki's father bought my seat as Kazekage. For selling that seat of power I was sent here when I died. I was unable to officially assign a replacement, but from my understanding he still took the position and abused it." The Kazekage said, explaining his placement in the afterlife.

"But being a secondary judge in Greed is not my punishment. My real punishment is that of the fate my-" the Kazekage was cut off as wires came down from the broken roof and bound him so that he could not speak or move. He was pulled out of the court house and thrown away.

"What the hell just happened?" Naruto yelled, they ran out of the back door and looked around but the wires were gone, as was the Kazekage. "Let's get out of here!" the escapees ran from the courthouse as quickly as they could, but could only go into a tunnel before them.

They appeared in a room, the bottom of the room filled with molten gold, separated from them only by metal bars. Around the walls were people painted in the gold, fused to the walls. The wall behind them began closing as the gold levels rose. The people at the bottom began screaming as they were engulfed by it. Konan quickly grabbed Naruto and grabbed a hook form the ceiling with a paper whip. She swung them across and they quickly exited. They climbed the ladder on the other side, to escape as there was no door to stop the gold on that side.

Once back outside they were ambushed by a pair of Gargoyles. Naruto easily took them out with a couple punches that landed them down the ladder they just climbed out. Naruto and Konan looked around for an exit, but there was too much machinery for them to clearly see the door to the next circle. "Which way should we go?" Naruto asked.

"Up." Konan said as she grabbed Naruto once more and sprouted her angelic wings and took to the sky. Once they were high enough up, they spotted the door. But before they could head towards it, the Kazekage returned. Puppeteered by the wires from before, the same fate that beheld his body on Earth.

"I'm sorry, they will not allow me to let you pass. But If I could let you go I would!" he yelled trying to control his body. His arm turned into a large spike thanks to the wires coming out of his arm. And tried to impale Naruto, but he quickly somersaulted over the spike and kicked the Kazekage in the face. He didn't move, even though he felt the Kage's face break under foot. More wires came out his back and tried to impale Naruto again, but this time Konan came up and deflected them with her wing. Even more wires came out from the shoulders where they stood and grabbed their legs.

Konan sliced then off her legs with Paper Wing Shuriken; however Naruto was now at the Kage's mercy. He was held and bound in front of him, the Kazekage tried to resist his body, as the spike slowly moved towards Naruto's eyes. Konan rushed in and cut off the Kage's arm, and used the wings to cut Naruto free and hold him in the air. This only slowed the Kage as his arm was reattached with more wires and his other arm was turned into large claws. "Damn it… we need to conserve our Chakra for bigger enemies…" Konan cursed to herself.

Konan rushed in and cut off the wires holding the Kazekage, and fell to his doom, landing in a pool of boiling gold. The cut wires were not about to give up however, as they soon went after Naruto. Konan sped off heading towards the door, she was cut off as more wires appeared out of nowhere. Konan changed direction and headed up, being chased and changing direction again when more and more wires continued to appear. Soon enough, there were enough wires after them to make several hydra heads to chase them. Konan found a cavern with a door to jump into. Most of the wires were stopped however the once that could continue, still chased them. Naruto saw a door ahead and jumped off Konan to slam it, keeping the wires at bay.

"Where are those wires coming from?" Naruto yelled. His frustration beginning to get the better of him.

Minato appeared once more. "It must be coming from the Circle leader." He said.

"Circle leader? What is that?" Konan asked.

"Each circle has one person who personifies the circle they inhabit, the absolute pinnacle of sinful behavior." Minato explained.

"Kakuzu…" Konan said. "He was the Akatsuki stock broker. He held money to be the only thing you could believe in."

"Oh crap! I remember him; he was the first person I used my Rasenshuriken on!" Naruto said. "I guess he wants another taste! Once my Rasenshuriken destroys his wires we can easily get out of here without worrying."

"But how are we going to get close enough to him without getting our bodies filled with the wires, like the Kazekage?" Konan asked.

"I have an idea, but it's really risky… But it would save me of the massive amount of chakra the Rasenshuriken takes from me…" Naruto said with a worried expression on his face.

Minato instantly realized what Naruto was thinking and interjected. "No! Naruto I won't let you! The evil energies of the Inferno will take you over if you use Sage Mode again!"

"But Dad, we have to try! I won't use it for long, only enough to throw the Rasenshuriken at Kakuzu. It'll only use the energy of the Inferno to create it and I can save my chakra for later when we really need it!"

"I think it's a good idea." Konan said. "But only use it for no longer than what ou have planed, got it? I won't make this journey without you!"

"No! This is insane, I won't let you, Naruto!" Minato yelled, scolding his son and holding him back against the wall.

Naruto lifted his arm and punched his father in the solar plexis, knocking him to the floor. "Naruto…?" Minato coughed. "Why?"

"I'm sorry, Dad. But I'm the Number 1 Hyperactive Knucklehead Ninja! The most unpredictable ninja the Leaf Village has ever seen!" Naruto said with pride. "The more batshit crazy my plans are, the better they turn out in the end!" he said laughing. "Now I need to go kick a dead guy's ass!" he said, turning from his dad. Konan nodded and they ran off further into the tunnel, to try and go around the wires.

"So what's the plan?" Konan asked, possibly excited.

"First, we gotta get out of here. Then we gotta find Kakuzu's body. You make some clones and keep him distracted. Then you have to hold me out of his range of vision while I collect Inferno energy. Once I enter Sage Mode, I'll make a Rasenshuriken and you help me throw it at him. When it hits him, his wires will be destroyed and he can't get us. Then we just gotta find the door and keep going." Naruto said.

"That's a good plan, but what if he sees us while fighting the clones? Or what if he destroys all the clones before you're finished?" Konan asked.

"Don't worry about it, I'm confident you can do this!" he said with a smile. His infamous smile inherited from his dad. Konan felt more at ease now.

They escaped the tunnel and into a room with a cat walk system, and a floor covered in more gold. A large demon was walking around carrying boxes and fixing the room. Maybe they were building a new torture room? Who knew? They made their way out of the room to the next another demon was doing the same thing as the other one, but he was on a solid floor, and took notice of the pair. It roared and began swiping it's claws at them, Konan flew up and Naruto dodged as it breathed fire down on him. "That could have been dangerous!" He said as he ran up the demon and took hold of its horns. He began maneuvering the demon around the room and broke the sealed door to let him and Konan out.

They ran from the demon, but it broke down the wall and chased them, until they ran into another tunnel and escaped, but not for long. As the demon bent over and breathed fire into the tunnel. They ran faster and escaped the tunnel and the flames chasing them. They could hear the demon roar, but continued. They were on a small path on the edge of a cliff, the continued forward to see if they could find an exit from this maze. They found a room without an exit, the walls and floor covered with gold covered people moaning in pain. The ceiling fall on them with silver spikes, stained red with blood then lifted again. Naruto and Konan continued along the path and found another room with no exit. This one had boiling silver on the bottom, as opposed to gold, being mixed by a large blender of swords coming from the ceiling. They continued on the path.

Eventually they found themselves at the top of the circle. Across from them they saw Kakuzu, who created a giant web of his wires, holding himself above the circle, with several wires going down into the circle and operating machinery. Luckily he hasn't seen them yet.

"Are we still going with the plan?" Konan asked as they hid themselves lower on the path.

"Of course." Naruto said.

"If that fails, what's "Plan B"?" Konan asked.

"I'll think of something." Naruto said with a foxy smile. Somehow that smile never failed to ease her worries.

"Let's do this then." Konan stood up, to create several clones, but there was Kakuzu standing detached from the web he created.

"What can I do for you, Konan?" Kakuzu asked as he kicked her away, off the cliff.

"No!" Naruto yelled as he dived after her, but was caught by Kakuzu's extended arm. Kakuzu pulled him up to himself.

"You! The Nine Tails Jinchuriki!" Kakuzu yelled angrily. "You're the reason I suffer, now dead!"

"I didn't finish you off, Kakashi Sensei did!" He retorted.

Kakuzu slammed him down on the ground. "He was no match for me! I was killed because you were able to kill 2 of my hearts and caused failure in my last one. It was only then that Kakashi finished me!" Kakuzu lifted Naruto into the air. "With your heart still full of chakra, I'll be able to escape and revive myself! I'll become the richest most powerful man in the world! All I need to do, is take my revenge to do it!"

Kakuzu was cut short in his vengeance as Konan returned and sliced off Kakuzu's arms with paper katanas. Naruto kicked Kakuzu's arms off the cliff and jumped onto Konan to escape. Kakuzu grows arms made of wire and reconnects to the web, quickly cutting off Konan's flight.

"Why in such a hurry, Konan? It's been so long, I've missed you!" he yells as he rips off the paper wings, and he catches her in his wires. Konan makes the Horse hand seal and the wings spread into individual papers and slices up Kakuzu's wires freeing herself, Naruto and Kakuzu and they begin to fall. Konan quickly reassembles the wings and flies off, but Kakuzu shoots some wires out from his arms and catches onto Konan. He used his open back to reconnect to the web.

He brings Konan back and realized Naruto is gone. Smacking her he asks, "Where is the Nine Tails?" Konan stabs him from the bottom of his jaw out the top of his head.

"He is not the Nina Tails! His name is Naruto Uzumaki and he is the one who will lead me and Nagato to redemption!" Konan yells at him, defending Naruto's humanity.

Kakuzu simply laughs. "You honestly believe you, and whoever this Nagato is, can be saved? Belief in others will lead you to death and suffering. I believed in my village, but they were only concerned with the money they lost when I failed to kill the First Hokage! The only thing you can count on is money!"

"Konan, now!" Naruto yelled from seemingly nowhere. Konan sliced through Kakuzu's wires and flew back. Kakuzu looked down and saw Naruto, eyes glowing red holding a redish Rasenshuriken standing on top of one of the many tall buildings.

"Eat this!" Naruto yelled as he threw the attack.

"Never!" Kakuzu yelled as he easily dodged and tackled Naruto. "Revenge is mine!" he yelled again as he held Naruto up with the wires and began punching him endlessly. He then slammed Naruto on the roof and prepared to extract the heart. "Any last words, Nine Tails?"

The bleeding Naruto only said 3 words "Wind… Style… Rasen… shuriken." Naruto disappeared in a puff of smoke as another red Rasenshuriken came up from below Kakuzu.

"What? No!" Kakuzu yelled as he was thrown back into the sky and crashed into his web. "Not again!" was the last thing he yelled before the Rasenshuriken exploded and destroyed the web that held Kakuzu. What remained of his wrecked form fell into the same pool of molten gold that the 3rd Kazekage fell into.

Naruto released the Sage Mode, and began sweating heavily. Konan came up and noticed it took its toll on Naruto's body. She carried him as they went to the door to the next circle. There Minato stood, recovered from the punch. Naruto walked up, and Minato knocked Naruto in the head.

"That was completely reckless! You could have been destroyed, taken over maybe even Konan would have suffered because of you!" Naruto looked on with a determined look in his eyes. "But you pulled off one of the stupidest stunts I've ever seen flawlessly. I'm proud of you!" Minato said as he hugged Naruto. Naruto stunned for a bit, then recovered and returned the hug.

Konan opened the door to the next circle and the sounds of war and chaos could be heard below. "What's that?" Naruto asked?

"Anger, our circle." Minato replied.

Naruto looked up to Minato with a stunned look on his face. "What?"

**A/N: Hahaha, cliffhangers. Don't you hate them? Next is Anger, and the big reveals of the story! Look forward to it! ;) Also sorry for always being late with this stuff, I have lots of issues to deal with.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or the Divine Comedy. Masashi Kishimoto and Dante Alighieri do. So don't yell at me for using the same characters and settings.**

**Naruto: Journey through the Land of Darkness**

Chapter 6:

The Fifth Circle

Upon getting to the bottom of the stairs to the fifth circle they witnessed a strange sight. A forest or rather a swamp, with rotted trees and dirty, scum-filled water for as far as they could see. In the distance Naruto could hear the sounds of fighting, explosions, death screams, trees being demolished and roars. Minato then spoke up, "This is the fifth circle, and swamps of regrets were the angry and wrathful fight eternally. This is the circle you and I have been sent to."  
"And when are you going to tell my why we were assigned this circle?" Naruto asked.

The trio stopped walking and Minato looked back to Naruto. "It's a long story and we need to get going." He replied.

"NO EXCUSES!" Naruto yelled. "I haven't seen you for my entire life and you expect me to not have questions? Who and where is my mother? Why are we assigned this level of Hell? And why the hell did you place the Nine Tails inside me?"

Minato looked down with a sad expression, contemplating how to tell the story of his life and Naruto's birth. Konan stood back, feeling uncomfortable with the situation. "I think we can afford a few minutes, Forth Hokage…" she said, barely above a whisper, trying to ease the situation.

"Fine." Minato said, defeated. "Naruto, your mother is dead, but she is not here. She's in heaven. The village feared and discriminated against her because she was the former Jinchuriki of the Nine Tailed Fox, and yet, she never bore any kind of hatred against them. I never understood it, but she always told me that the anger wasn't worth it and they didn't know any better."

Naruto was in shock, his mother was the previous Jinchuriki and she was able to overcome her anger at the village. He couldn't help but feel both pride in his mother and jealousy at her empathy. "What happened to you guys?" he asked. 

Minato continued his story. "I hated them, the villagers, for the way they treated her when I wasn't around. They would yell things at her, forbid her from entering certain places and they threw things at her. And then we found out she was pregnant. We were so happy and scared. Pregnancy makes a Jinchuriki's seal weaker and we needed to keep your mother sealed in a hut, just outside the village on the other side of the Hokage Monument. When it was about time for you to be born, the seal was almost completely broken. After you were born the hut was suddenly attacked by a masked man claiming to be Madara Uchiha seeking the Nine Tails' power. Your mother and I fought him, with you hidden away. She died in battle and the beast was released and it attacked the village. I quickly defeated the man and went on the offensive against the Nine Tails. I knew I couldn't defeat it so I then got you and sealed it, making you a Jinchuriki like your mother before you. I died angry that I would have to leave you alone to face the pain of being a Jinchuriki, angry at Madara for killing your mother and at myself for failing the way I did. That is why I came to be here."

Naruto then asked. "What was her name?"

"Her name was Kushina Uzumaki, and I loved her more than anything until you were born." Minato replied. "You were given her last name to keep my image in the public's eye clean. If it were up to me, I would have been proud to call you my son, regardless of how the village looked at you."

"What a touching story." A voice from up in the trees said.

Everyone looked up and saw the blonde haired, blue eyed bomb master standing in the tree. "Deidara." Konan called to him. "Why am I not surprised you would up here? Your hate for the Uchiha really knows no bounds does it?"

"Not just the Uchiha! That Nine Tails brat too! I've got a score to settle with your sorry ass! This is for the Shukaku incident!" Deidara jumped down and turned grey and then he suddenly lit up and exploded. Everyone jumped out of the blast radius and were blown into the trees.

"Is everyone alright?" Minato called. Naruto and Konan called out saying they were fine and rejoined Minato. They jumped down and found themselves surrounded by Deidaras, all jumping forward and exploding. Konan covered everyone with a paper dome to protect them.

Naruto looked to his father and realized that he was still there. "How come you haven't disappeared yet?"

"I'm solid in this circle. Since I have no chakra left, I'm only a ghost outside of it." He said, explaining a little more about Hell's rules.

When the explosions stopped, Konan let down the dome and they looked around the destroyed area. Now instead of Deidara, there was a huge group of mindless shinobi, wearing the same gear as the first Hokage. Decades in the inferno wiping their minds of everything but their anger. The first one quickly went in for the attack with a sickle to Naruto's neck, but was stopped almost instantly by the Yellow Flash's lightning quick speed. "So fast!" Naruto exclaimed, seeing now how he got the nickname.

"Let's go, Naruto, Konan!" he said as he disappeared into a flurry of lightning quick attacks. Naruto got a kunai and Konan fluttered into paper butterflies as they attacked the giant group of shinobi. It might have taken about an hour, but eventually the combined force of the three sinners took down the armada.

They continued their journey across the circle until they came across a large clearing, made from Deidara's explosions. In it, hundreds of shinobi endlessly fighting and destroying each other, then rising to do it all again. Down in the center of it all, fighting to his fullest was Deidara, using his hand mouths to chomp on the dirt and make bombs from it. He seemed both angry and psychotically happy in the fighting. His reason for being in the circle clear and making it obvious that he was the circle leader.

Naruto couldn't help but look at him with anger in his eyes, the red chakra of the inferno started to swell around him. Minato quickly grabbed his shoulders. "Naruto, don't lose yourself to the circle's influence."

"How can I? He was the one who killed Gaara! I can't help but get angry seeing his ugly face!" He snapped at Minato.

"This circle has a strong grasp on you, Naruto. This is our circle and you'll lose yourself to your anger, unless you do what I did and learn to forgive. Otherwise, we won't get you out of here." Minato said to him.

Naruto unclenched his fists and breathed deeply. He then opened his eyes, now glowing red and surrounded by the Inferno's chakra. Naruto roared like a beast and disappeared in a flash into the crowd of shinobi, destroying anyone who got in his way to Deidara.

Upon seeing him, Deidara wasn't afraid, still cocky. "I see you're here to fight me head on! Good, now we can settle this score!"

Naruto disappeared and tried to attack Deidara from behind, but he grabbed Naruto and threw him into the crowd with a handful of small bug shaped explosives. The area he landed in began to explode, the other shinobi not being able to escape. Naruto jumped out with the force right at Deidara, tackling him, but it was just another diversion. He lit up and exploded sending Naruto flying. Deidara caught Naruto in a bird shaped bomb and blew it out of the air. Naruto was caught before he hit the ground by Minato and Konan blocked another bomb. She then closed the shield like an umbrella and shot it straight at Deidara. He caught it in his chest mouth and chewed it into another bomb, but threw it into the crowd behind him where it destroyed everyone

"Naruto snap out of it! Let it go, we need to get out of here!" Minato said, trying to get Naruto out before it was too late. But he wouldn't listen, now the inferno chakra began to cover him like the Nina Tails' chakra when it took control, shaping in the back as nine chakra tails. Naruto took his dad and threw him at Deidara like a missile. Minato threw marked kunai all around the area and instantly disappeared; teleporting between areas avoiding Naruto's stretching chakra attacks.

Meanwhile Deidara and Konan were battling in the air, Konan flying with her paper wings; Deidara on his bird bomb. Each of them were shooting endless streams of bombs and paper, countering each other perfectly. "I never knew you were this good!" Konan yelled at Deidara sending a spiral of paper flower knives his way.

"I was always a genius tactician!" Deidara responded as he skillfully dodged the attacks. "But I don't need to only rely on my special clay here! I can use anything as an explosive!" Deidara surrounded Konan in a swarm of humming bird bombs. "True art, is a blast!" Deidara yelled as the swarm all simultaneously exploded.

Konan fell out of the air, in flames, her paper jutsu weak against the fires of Deidara's explosions. "Long range won't work; I need to get in close." She thought to herself. Suddenly she ran in avoiding his homing bombs, jumping up and getting up close to Deidara. She took him by surprise and attacked with her taijutsu; rusty as she was she was still better then Deidara's pitiful attempts at blocking. She effortlessly tripped him and kicking him off the bird, sending it crashing to the ground, she jumped down after him. However she backed off when she noticed that the crowd of angry shinobi began tearing him apart, in a bloody mess.

Minato made a few hand signs and placed his hand on Naruto's chest after an opening let him get close. Markings spread all over Naruto's body as his father placed a sealing jutsu on Naruto weighing him down and preventing him from moving. However, the evil chakra then burned off the markings and Naruto knocked him across the circle; his, or rather the inferno's power, was a sight to behold.

Konan then came in and attempted to detain Naruto with her paper but just like the marks the chakra burned the paper. Unlike Minato she avoided his attacks and flew to Minato by choice. When they met again they decided they needed a plan.

"I know what this circle does to its sinners. They become increasingly angrier as they fight; the punishments here are the loss of all emotions and reason other than anger." Minato said.

"How were you able to regain your senses then?" Konan asked.

"Kushina appeared to me, and told me to let go my anger towards the villagers. It was that simple. She was the only person who made me feel at peace." Minato said.

Naruto roared in the distance as the chakra grew in size and began looking more like the Fox. "How long do we have, before it's too late to save him?" Konan asked seeing Naruto.

"I went through this phase when I first entered this circle. For now the inferno chakra won't deplete his chakra, it's saving it." Minato explained. "It's the inferno's version of a slap to the face. It'll save his chakra and making think there's a chance of escape, then it disappears. When that happens you become temporarily paralyzed and your chakra is depleted instantly as you get killed the first time in this circle's chaos. We need to snap him out of it and get him out as fast as possible, if we don't he's as well as damned."

The blonde terrorist reappeared from the chaos, taller than he was before, and seemingly more powerful. He only opened his hands and ready bombs began shooting from them at the large Fox-like Naruto. The explosions knocked him back slightly but did not do much to deter his charge when suddenly, from the ground, explosions everywhere. It seems Deidara planted mines in the ground upon his newest resurrection.

Deidara spread his arms and opened the mouths on his chest and hands; from each came forth his specialties. From the right arm came the C3 terrorist's delight, from the left emerged the C2 Dragon and from the chest came the cell killing C4 Giant clone. The first to attack was the C3, Deidara threw it into the air and it grew to a massive size and began to freefall. Just before impact it lit up and blew into an explosion large enough to rival Pain's most powerful Almighty Push.

When the smoke from the blast cleared Naruto was even bigger, protected by the chakra. Minato and Konan were nowhere to be seen. Upon seeing this Deidara got up onto the C2 Dragon and flew high into the sky as the C4 Clone moved forward. It looked as though it would attack when Naruto simply tore it to shreds; it was hollow like a balloon. Then suddenly, all the resurrected shinobi on the ground began to disintegrate, leaving ashes in their wake. None of the shinobi hit by the cell destroying C4 were resurrected, they were permanently destroyed.

Naruto on the other hand simply became smaller in size, the C4 only destroying half the chakra surrounding him. Deidara saw this as him becoming weaker and flew down to attack. From the dragon's mouth Deidara began firing smaller dragon shaped bombs at Naruto, knocking him around. Naruto retaliated by having his chakra tails attack like spears and destroy most of the bombs sent his way. Soon enough the C2 Dragon's tail was gone and Deidara out of ammunition to use against Naruto. Deidara sent the dragon on a collision course with Naruto as he jumped off. The dragon connected and exploded into Naruto shedding the chakra that protected his upper body. The chakra was different then the Nine Tails', it didn't grow back into shape when it was blown off. It simply stayed the same, like a wound.

Seeing this Deidara summoned two more C2 Dragons and sent them to destroy the rest of the chakra, then soon enough it was all gone. Naruto laid there, fully awake, but now paralyzed. He was angry and afraid, he was going to die as Deidara placed a fox shaped bomb on Naruto's head. "The reason you lost Naruto, is because you couldn't appreciate the art of battle. And I think you realize it now." Deidara said with a sadistic smile. "Art… IS A BL-" a marked kunai flew just passed Deidara's head as Minato suddenly appeared in front of Deidara and hit him with a powerful Great Rasengan. Deidara flew back away from Naruto as Konan flew in and threw the fox shaped bomb back at Deidara as it readied to explode. The bomb landed on top of Deidara's broken body as it detonated, destroying his head.

Naruto looked up at Minato, anger still in his eyes. "Konan, do it." Minato said, as Naruto's body was enclosed in a dome. A paper clone of Konan appeared within it.

"Naruto, your father and I figured it out. Your anger wasn't directed towards anyone else, it was towards yourself. You were angry with yourself because after everything that happened, you still couldn't hold within your heart the ability to hate. Not even Pain." She said to him. The clone then disappeared into the dome and Naruto was left to contemplate this revelation.

Then in the darkness within the dome, another Naruto came into existence. This Naruto was exactly the same; the only difference was pitch black eyes of hate. "You are pathetic!" it yelled. "Why? Why don't you hate them? Why don't you just kill them all? You want acknowledgment, right? Then kill them all! It'll fill you up inside, their deaths will make you feel good, it will remind them that you existed!"

And suddenly it clicked. Deep down, he was exactly the same as Gaara was. Memories of Gaara's hardships and change for the better after meeting him flooded Naruto's mind. Gaara's change of ideals was possible, because they were the same. Not just as Jinchuriki, but as people. "You're wrong." Naruto said to his darkness. "Killing them would have only made them fear me. That's not the kind of recognition I wanted. I wanted to be recognized as someone they looked up to, someone they looked to for leadership. I wanted friends and I got them. I had the old man Hokage, Iruka-sensei, Sakura, Kakashi-sensei, Hinata, Kiba, the Pervy Sage, Sai, Yamato-sensei, Bushy Brows, Neji, even Sasuke. They acknowledged me without fear, but with love." Naruto began to cry, feeling stupid and selfish for his years of anger and jealousy. "I was sent to this circle because I never acknowledged my own feelings other then my misplaced loneliness. I was loved for years and I never realized it." Naruto then looked up to this dark side. "I don't need you anymore, because I have my friends."

Naruto's dark side then began crying and before he could respond, disappeared. For the first time in his life, Naruto truly felt at peace. The burdens of his sins were finally lifted. Now Naruto felt like he could move again. It was time to face Deidara and move on.

Outside Minato and Konan were having a hard time dodging explosions and futilely attacking Deidara. Naruto emerged from the dome as it collapsed. Naruto now had the Sage Jutsu activated, but it was not like it was before. It was now as it was back on Earth. The inferno's chakra now no longer held any influence on him, as he was now cleansed of his sin of anger. He was almost a glowing beacon of hope in the eyes of Konan and his father, as they lay on the ground in pain.

Naruto grabbed one of his father's kunai and threw it at Deidara. He summoned ten shadow clones and they all prepared giant rasengans. When the kunai hit Deidara in the chest, all the Narutos surrounded him and wiped out his body in the crash of rasengans. Almost instantly, Naruto knew what he would do. He was going to personally forgive Nagato and help him escape his punishment.

Naruto picked up his father and Konan and brought them to the door to the next circle. He let them rest and they were able to recover. Naruto then opened the door and he could hear the sounds of millions screaming in a cavernous echo and he felt the heat of fire.

"What's next?" he asked, determined to find Nagato.

His father responded. "The Sixth Circle. There heretics burn and it's where we will find Nagato."

**I'm sorry I don't update as often as I should, but I've said before, I'm not just lazy but also have a lot of problems to work through. Anyway, next we'll encounter Nagato and others with god complexes.**


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